I think the impact of the EZLN has been decreasing as the years go by. Most
of the political attention they have gotten is outside of Mexico.
Erik
On Sun, Aug 27, 2017, 10:42 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism at lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
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>> NY Times, August 27 2017
> In a Mexico ‘Tired of Violence,’ Zapatista Rebels Venture Into Politics
> By PAULINA VILLEGAS
>> The Zapatistas, the most powerful political rebels in Mexico in nearly
> 100 years, are renouncing armed revolution, after decades of opposing
> the government, for a simple reason: Mexico is so riddled with violence,
> they say, that the country cannot handle any more of it.
>> The decision is a searing commentary on the state of Mexico today,
> analysts say. The rebels have not reached a peace deal with the
> government, nor won their longstanding push for indigenous rights. But
> killings in Mexico are rising so quickly that even a movement rooted in
> armed struggle feels compelled to back away from violence.
>> “This shows the extent to which Mexicans are tired of violence,” said
> Jesús Silva-Herzog, a political-science professor at the School of
> Government at Tecnológico de Monterrey. “Political radicalism today has
> to be pacifist because the public, social and economic life in Mexico
> has been stained with blood for far too long.”
>> Subcommander Marcos, the rebel leader who became a global phenomenon in
> 1994 when the Zapatistas stormed into towns in the state of Chiapas,
> stood on stage for a brief moment a few months ago, hidden behind a
> throng of fighters, youngsters with piercings and indigenous followers
> in hand-stitched blouses.
>> But now, the Zapatistas say, more violence, no matter the cause, is the
> last thing Mexico needs.
>> Instead, they have decided to work within the system they once revolted
> against, backing a candidate to run for president in next year’s elections.
>> “We arrived at a breaking point,” said Carlos González, a spokesman for
> the National Indigenous Congress, an organization that represents
> indigenous groups in Mexico, who was speaking for the Zapatistas as well.
>> “Taking up arms was out of the question,” he said. “It was just too
> bloody of an option,” though he did not rule out taking up arms again at
> some point in the future.
>> Violence has long plagued Mexico, where more than 100,000 people have
> been killed and more than 30,000 have disappeared in the decade-long
> drug war.
>> But this year, deaths have hit new heights: May and June set consecutive
> 20-year records for the number of homicide scenes across the country.
>> Letting go of the revolutionary identity that once defined them, the
> Zapatistas, whose full name is the Zapatista Army of National
> Liberation, are venturing into electoral politics. They have endorsed
> María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, a healer from the indigenous Nahua
> people, in next year’s presidential elections.
>> “In Mexico, being an indigenous person means being treated as half a
> person, and if you are a woman, even less so,” said Mrs. Patricio, 57,
> who is not a Zapatista herself.
>> The Zapatista goal, they say, is not to win, but rather to use the 2018
> election as a platform to voice the issues most pressing to Mexico’s
> indigenous communities.
>> “We couldn’t care less about the presidency; all we want to do is crash
> the election party and ruin it,” said Mr. González, the spokesman.
>> The Mexican government says that it welcomes “all political and social
> expressions,” including the Zapatista-backed candidate, arguing that it
> contributes to a stronger democracy.
>> Not everyone, however, buys the Zapatista narrative. Some of their
> opponents see them as an opportunistic guerrilla group that could
> further fracture the vote on the left.
>> One of their main critics is the leading left-wing populist presidential
> candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a front-runner in early polls
> who has called the Zapatista-backed candidacy a “political stunt.”
>> When they first appeared in 1994, the threat of violence was part of the
> Zapatista program. A transfixed nation watched as an army of indigenous
> peasants, wearing ski masks and toting assault weapons, stormed several
> towns in the southern state of Chiapas and declared war against the
> Mexican state.
>> The rebels demanded the recognition and protection of indigenous
> communities, which have persistently ranked at the bottom of the
> country’s socio-economic ladder. With their armed insurrection, black
> balaclavas and fervent speeches, the Zapatistas forced Mexico to grapple
> with its long history of inequality.
>> The uprising came at a particularly sensitive time, as Mexico was in the
> throes of globalization and its deepening relationship with the United
> States. The North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted on the day
> the uprising started.
>> After a 12-day confrontation between government troops and Zapatista
> fighters, a first truce took place. It soon crumbled when the president
> at the time, Ernesto Zedillo, issued arrest warrants for prominent
> Zapatistas members, including the group’s only nonindigenous spokesman,
> Subcommander Marcos.
>> With the impassioned speeches from its horse-riding, mysterious leader,
> the Zapatistas quickly attracted legions of followers both locally and
> abroad. Some hailed the rebels’ fight as the first “postmodern revolution.”
>> A rocky negotiation process with the government ensued, leading to the
> San Andrés Accords, signed in 1996. It promised a constitutional reform
> that would grant limited autonomy to indigenous communities, such as the
> right to elect councils for local rule over their lands.
>> But when the reform was finally passed in 2001, it excluded the right to
> autonomous rule over their territories, prompting the Zapatistas to cut
> all ties with the government and political parties.
>> Their momentum began to fade. The rebels vanished from the public radar,
> returning to their hide-outs in the Lacandon jungle and quietly
> organizing their own communities in lieu of seeking publicity.
>> And then three years ago, Subcommander Marcos gave a speech reflecting
> on the Zapatista army and laying out what would ultimately become, this
> year, the rebels’ new course of action.
>> “We choose life, not death,” he said in the speech. “Instead of building
> barracks and improving our arsenal of weapons, we built schools,
> hospitals, and we improved our living conditions.”
>> The Zapatistas were changing, and so was he. He changed his name to
> Subcommander Galeano, to honor a fallen comrade. And he announced the
> death of the persona of Subcommander Marcos. There was no longer a need
> for it, he said, describing himself as “a suit made for the media.”
>> In the following years, the Zapatista-controlled territories exercised
> de facto autonomy, delivering broad access to education and health
> services. Organized crime has been unable to penetrate the area.
>> Just 16 miles north from the colonial town of San Cristóbal de las
> Casas, a large sign welcomes outsiders to Oventik, a Zapatista enclave.
> It reads, “In this place the people rule, and the government obeys.”
> Guards stand watch 24 hours a day, rigorously questioning outsiders
> about their business and often turning them away.
>> Supply stores sell T-shirts with the popular image of Subcommander
> Marcos wearing a mask and smoking a pipe, with catchphrases like, “I
> apologize for bothering you, this is a revolution.”
>> Bright, enormous murals with revolutionary slogans, both in the local
> Tzotzil language and in Spanish, cover every building. No alcohol is
> allowed and neither is the use or cultivation of illegal drugs. Instead,
> farmers grow coffee, honey and flowers. The people make shoes, sell
> tortillas and live in a commune-like system, sharing responsibilities
> and decision-making power in so-called Good Government Councils.
>> “The U.S.A. seems to be destined, by providence, to plague Latin America
> with misery in the name of freedom,” reads a worn-down sign hanging in
> the middle of a dusty dining hall.
>> This Zapatista model of community organization, and the new political
> movement backing Mrs. Patricio for president, have given hope to some
> disenfranchised Mexicans that the way they are governed can be
> different, and better, with a more democratic system free of the
> deal-making and patronage politics that exist on practically every level
> of government.
>> “They were the ones who sustained and nourished our hope over the
> years,” said Maribel Cervantes, a community organizer from the state of
> Veracruz, referring to the Zapatistas.
>> “They are a living example of how different things can be,” she added.
> “And now this candidate can be a ray of light in the darkness.”
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